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Breaker Gates
"The so-called 'Gift of Providence' my father would have called it. Ever since we found it in orbit near the second moon and figured out not only how to make it work, but also how to make copies we've laid claim to the stars, not once wondering how or why such a remarkable device would just be floating around unattended..." ~Researcher Hayorl N'ktakaa, University of Folmiiir Breaker gates are rare finds in the Milky Way Galactic neighborhood. Left behind by some unknown advanced race, Abandoned, intentionally left or lost is unknown. What little markings have been upon them are part of the operation, or has been proven to have been left by impact or other forms on all those found. Similar to the Astria Portia and Dimensional Transit gate, the materials and design of manufacturing Breaker gates is possible. Though like a great many Legacy devices encountered, making a copy of the item doesn't necessarially entail a working knowledge of the physics behind it. The design is a complex arrangement of nodes and connector braces. Each of the nodes contains a receptor and capacitor which is what is used to charge and control the gate. In it's powered down form, the gate collapses down to a spherical object anywhere from the size of 10 to 100 meters. When activated, the connector braces change and shift position in relation to the various nodes to "unfold" the gate, which also powers up the nodes for transit. When unfolded the gate first takes on the shape of two hollow hemispheres (one larger than the other) connected together at the apex of the mid point. The smallest size a gate has been found has been 60 meters in diameter when opened. The largest has been 3 Kilometers. As the gate activates the larger of the hemispheres moves to wrap around the ship controlling it. Emitting a significant amount of Light energy. Observation shows that as the Sphere surrounds the ship and locks into a sphere around it, both spheres seem to collapse into the central point where the gate and craft cease to exist at that point in space in a final burst of luminous. Only to have both emerge and expand again at the exit location where the larger of the Spheres opens, and the craft exits. One of the strange effects is that though the Ship may have been flying into the Gate at the entrance point, it is pointed back out at the exit point. there are numerous theories including that at the point of transit the smaller hemisphere actually closes and expands to the size of the other sphere and the ship merely passed through the center from one to the other. Though since any material within the Gate at time of Transit seems to not experience any passage of time, it is impossible to record the particulars. After transit is completed the Gate then collapses neatly back into it's initial smaller spherical shape and in most cases is stored back on board the ship. So far any attempts to attach the gate to the exterior of a ship has resulted in the gate not being operational. For whatever reason when even copies are made they only function as a separate and external device for the use of transit. Since whatever method of transit is still theoretical or not understood (or beyond the current methods of study for most modern species) it seems that making a internal system that functions the same way is still beyond current capabilities. Though, as mentioned, the actual assortment of parts, arrangement of the nodes and braces, and materials used are rather simple to copy. ---- Theories There are numerous theories as to how they work and without any apparent time dilation between start and finish. The most widely accepted are presented here. Breaker Gates are actually primitive types of theoretical Riftspace drives that use the gate exterior itself as a combination navigation array and stabilization field for everything within the center. With the Side effect that the created pocket universe does not interact with the 4th dimension and thus experiences no entropy as it is navigated. Another theory is that they are a form of Spacefold drive where the Sphere on the Entrance is located at the entrance point, whereas the "smaller" Sphere is actually already folded through space and created a tesseract to the emergence point, when both spheres are closed and collapsing the gate folds through on itself and "steps through" from one point to the other. This is why the Ship emerging doesn't emerge by backing out, instead of progressing forward. The third primary theory is that the Breaker gates actually Work on a 4th dimensional principle. If one imagines the Physical universe as a sphere, with the three dimensional space being the outside surface, and the 4th dimension as combined infinite layers of Entropic moments that "inflate" the sphere as "time" progresses (Which accounts for why we always perceive time as moving and can relatavistically be altered by mass and momentum) what the gate does is convert all the mass of the vessel and itself into a singular Entropic moment. Which means that freed from 3 dimensional limitations it effectively exists everywhere in the universe within that entropic moment, so the exit location can effectively be anywhere that Entropic moment connects with. It merely ends up applying three dimensional space back to the object at any point it's in contact with and thus start experiencing entropy again as normal, though in relation to where it began it may be hundreds of light years away. These are, naturally, all theoretical in nature, and experimentations on figuring out just what the range is on a breaker gate is a bit challenging since currently it seems to need to have a precise location input for the destination, which becomes a challenge since any observed location from another galaxy is going to be centuries old by the time you have a chance to read it. This precise method of navigation tends to limit the range to well known star systems within a specific range, though the potential in any of the theories shows that one could theoretically use the gate to travel anywhere in the universe. ---- Mechanisms One of the strangest things about Breaker gates is that though deceptively simple, the various lattices and forms within them seems to be capable of a lot more functionality than seems to be used while the gate is transiting. Whether the gates were actually designed as a method of travel, or such is merely a by product of their design and their intention was for something else is unknown. What is known is if all these extra pathways and specifics are not integrated as well and only those that seem active during transit are included, the gate will not work. So in a way they seem necessary to the proper operation, however whether they are redundant systems, additional capacities or merely unable to be understood or scanned as to their purpose, current modern science has no idea. ---- Philosophies The fact of such a unexplainable, yet useful method of transit is found abandoned and just in most cases drifting in space has lead some to several philosophical beliefs. Some believe they are a test. That the beings who invented them evolved so far technologically that they have no way to communicate with lower life forms any longer, so they scattered the gates among the galaxies as a test so that when a species has advanced significantly to be able to communicate with the builders, they will figure out how to do so using the breaker gates and thus be elevated. Some also believe they are a test, however one from a similarly likewise advanced civilization that is so paranoid of challenges to their power that they spread the gates around as booby-traps. Where if a race is significantly advanced enough to unlock the puzzle of the gates they are a threat and can be dealt with before they actually become one. Some believe the gates are actually simply probes sent out long ago to see if there was other life in the universe, and they went dormant after not finding any. Some joke that this is known as the Ancient budget cuts effect which proves bureaucracy and commerce always get any program in the end. And for those of a more religious bent it is believed that the breaker gates are a gift from their supreme being with the intent of elevating their race from being subjugated by other species and giving them a divine inheritance to the stars, while other races without such are left behind. There has been a group of late who believes that the gates were at one point a type of time-travel vehicle, (Mainly of Scientists who believe in the Fourth dimensional transit theory) that could possibly still work as such, though it would take a great deal more study to Figure out how to unlock that potential. Though the fact that none of these scientists has encountered descendants of themselves or other beings who have used the gates to travel in time tends to lessen this particular theory of their intended use. (Though it is argued that to avoid temporal paradoxes, time travelers are not able to interact with those working on time travel up until the actual device is invented or unlocked.) Whatever the personal belief, it's known that the oldest gates are older than even the Astria Portia and Dimensional Transit Gates, though they remain an elusive enigma as to their true genesis. So far various beings are more than happy to take advantage of using the gates even without understanding how they work or what they were intended to do. Such has been described as a Feline laying on the remains of a Extensive mansion sunning itself and thinking : "What a wonderful sunning perch somebody made for me" without a care as to fact it was not designed for them at all.